Malawi marketers to launch Kuvala Kwathu competition

The Malawi chapter of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) has revealed plans to launch a competition aimed at discovering a truly Malawian cloth design that will serve as the nation’s national cloth.

The competition dubbed ‘Kuvala Kwathu’, will be open to all graphic designers in the country willing to accept the challenge of designing a cloth that reflects Malawi’s culture.

Speaking in an interview, Kuvala Kwathu’s project spokesperson Isaac Bukhu said “Having a national cloth is vital to the Brand Malawi Strategy.”

“We need to build a consistent national identity that will differentiate us from others, and one which we can sell worldwide, and having a national ‘uniform’ will definitely help achieve this goal,” Bukhu said.

The Kuvala Kwathu competition coincides with the Best Buy Malawi initiative where amongst others; civil servants are being encouraged to don traditional attire every Friday.

“Government and Business play complementary roles in building a positive image for the country that ought to attract more foreign investors,” The Kuvala Kwathu’s spokesperson said.

The winner of the Kuvala Kwathu competition is expected to walk away with MK 100, 000 cash prizes, on top of having the honor of seeing their design being worn as the national apparel.

This makes a lot of sense. This is the direction we were supposed to take long time ago. With the buy Malawian Strategy in place where Malawian civil servants are encouraged to wear Malawian stuff on Fridays, I have seen many dressing as if they are from Nigeria. We truly lack a sense of national identity. This is a good initiative